"Fifty Shades Freed" dominates North American box office

Antoinette Holland |Monday, February 12, 2018

Jamie Dornan on'Fifty Shades: I'm gettin too old for this Jamie Dornan has said he is getting'too old for the'Fifty Shades franchise

Overall the marketplace is still down around 1.8 percent for the year and around 27 percent from the same weekend last year, which, comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian notes, saw the launch of "The Lego Batman Movie, " "FiftyShades Darker',' and "John Wick: Chapter 2, " all of which opened over $30 million". The fanbase that propelled the novel to become the bestselling book of all time, plus the rest of us who were just curious to see how they pulled it off (so to speak), led the film to earn almost $100 million in its opening weekend when it arrived in 2015.

"It's very satisfying to see a trilogy designed primarily for an adult female audience be able to broaden out literally into a billion dollar franchise", said Jim Orr, the studio's distribution chief.

Directed by James Foley and once again starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, Fifty Shades Freed continues the story of budding book editor Anastasia Steele, kinky billionaire Christian Grey, and their tumultuous romance. But ticket sales for the final movie adaptation were solid, declining only 16 percent from initial results for its series predecessor, "Fifty Shades Darker", a year ago.

Fifty Shades Freed whipped up US$137 million (NZ$189 million) internationally over the weekend, topping the North American market with US$38.8 million. Will Gluck directed the movie, which has garnered mixed reviews but a respectable A-minus CinemaScore.

Director Clint Eastwood's The 15:17 To Paris pulled into third place with $12.6 million plus $5.3 million from the foreign box office. The film tells the stunning story of real-life heroism by three young American passengers who thwarted a terrorist attack on a train bound for Paris on August 21, 2015. The film notably stars non-actors Stone, Sadler, and Skarlatos as themselves. Those figures bring their respective domestic totals to $365.7 million and $146.5 million.

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